The Beenleigh railway line is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

extending 40.1 km from Boggo Road / Park Road to

Beenleigh Beenleigh is a town and suburb in the City of Logan, Queensland, Australia. In the , the suburb of Beenleigh had a population of 8,425 people. A government survey for the new town was conducted in 1866. The town is the terminus for the Beenle ...

. It is part of the Queensland Rail Citytrain network.

History

Originally known as the Logan railway line, the line opened to Loganlea in April 1885 being the first section of the

South Coast line The South Coast Line (SCO) is an Regional rail, intercity rail service that services the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The service runs from , and runs the entire length of the eponymous South Coast railway line, New South W ...

which was opened beyond Beenleigh to

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

in 1889. The original city terminus of the line was Stanley St, South Brisbane until a dual track line was constructed from Dutton Park to South Brisbane opposite the Victoria Bridge opening in 1891. The railway originally approximately paralleled Fairfield Road between

Dutton Park Dutton Park is an inner southern Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Dutton Park had a population of 2,134 people. Geography Dutton Park is located about south of the Brisbane ...

and Yeronga. Following the

1893 Brisbane flood The 1893 Brisbane flood, occasionally referred to as the Great Flood of 1893 or the Black February flood, occurred in 1893 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Brisbane River burst its banks on three occasions in February 1893. It was the ...

, the Fairfield Deviation realigned the route above the flood level onto the current alignment. The line from Dutton Park to Yeerongpilly was duplicated at the same time. The

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

line from

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

NSW New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a state on the east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. T ...

which opened in 1930 was built parallel to the line from Salisbury to South Brisbane. The section from Yeerongpilly to Kuraby was duplicated between 1950 and 1952.Kerr, J. 'Triumph of Narrow Gauge' Boolarong Publications 1990 With increasing popularity of the

motor car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one bil ...

, the South Coast line was closed beyond Beenleigh in 1964. The opening of the

Merivale Bridge The Merivale Bridge is a double track railway bridge crossing the Brisbane River. It crosses the Milton Reach of the river, located in between the Go Between Bridge and the William Jolly Bridge. Exclusively a railway crossing, it is located b ...

in 1978 connected the Beenleigh (and Cleveland) line to the Brisbane CBD, and the line was electrified in 1982. The Merivale Bridge was converted to

dual gauge Dual gauge railroad track has three or four rails, allowing vehicles of two track gauges to run on it. Signalling and sidings are more expensive to install on dual gauge tracks than on two single gauge tracks. Dual gauge is used when there i ...

in 1986 and standard gauge passenger trains now terminate at Roma St. The Gold Coast line was progressively rebuilt on a new alignment south of Beenleigh from 1996. The section from Kuraby to Beenleigh was duplicated in association with the re-establishment of the Gold Coast line in 1995. The standard gauge line was converted to dual gauge and electrified at the same time, creating a third track as far as Salisbury. The third track was later extended from Salisbury to Kuraby in 2008.

Line guide and services

Most services stop at all stations to

Roma Street railway station Roma Street railway station is a commuter and long-distance passenger train station located in the Brisbane central business district, central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the junction station for the North Coast ...

. The typical travel time between Beenleigh and Brisbane City is approximately 59 minutes (to Central). From 2025 the line will utilize

Cross River Rail Cross River Rail (CRR) is an Rapid transit, underground heavy rail project currently under construction in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The project will see the development of a new rail line underneath the Brisbane River, together with th ...

and stop at the three new stations in the inner city. Beenleigh line services typically continue as Ferny Grove line services. Passengers for/from the Gold Coast line change at either South Bank, Altandi, Loganlea or Beenleigh; Cleveland line change at Boggo Road;

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

and

Rosewood Rosewood is any of a number of richly hued hardwoods, often brownish with darker veining, but found in other colours. It is hard, tough, strong, and dense. True rosewoods come from trees of the genus '' Dalbergia'', but other woods are often ca ...

lines at Roma Street; and all other lines at Central.

Gallery

File:StateLibQld 1 251348 Women loaded with parcels and cases, leaving a train via the tracks.jpg, Passengers, leaving the New South Wales Railways carriage on the right side, transferring to a Queensland train on the left at Clapham Junction, Moorooka, probably during WW2 File:StateLibQld 2 43195 Interstate train passing through Fairfield, Brisbane, 1930.jpg, First train to Sydney passing Fairfield, 1930 File:Dia 0180.jpg, NSWR loco 8025 and another haul the Sydney bound 'Brisbane Limited' past the former Gloucester Road station site, 1987 File:Fairfield Railway Station, Queensland, July 2012.JPG, Fairfield railway station, 2012 File:Dia 0219.jpg, QR loco 2400 hauls an empty Sunlander consist through Yeronga station (in order to turn the train), 1987. The station has since been replaced with a brick structure File:Dia 0216.jpg, NSWR loco 44216 and another haul the northbound 'Brisbane Limited' across the Corinda line at Yeerongpilly, 1987 File:Dia 0217.jpg, QR loco 2493 hauls a short container train across the Standard Gauge line to Sydney at Yeerongpilly station, 1987. Note the Standard Gauge loco shed in the background File:QR EMU unit 07 in original colour scheme on a Beenleigh bound train at Rocklea, ~1987.jpg, QR EMU unit 07 in original colour scheme on a Beenleigh bound train at Rocklea, ''ca.''1987. Note the dual gauge rail on the third line

References

External links

Queensland Rail
* {{Public transport in Queensland Brisbane railway lines Public transport in Brisbane Railway lines opened in 1885 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Australia